mandalay

why i'm looking forward to living in santa cruz: part one

with each day that passes here in austin, even while saying goodbye to some really great friends, more and more situations arise that reinforce how good it is that i'm leaving. one of these occasions came to pass yesterday as i was trying to exit the polvo's parking lot, which people tend to spill into and use like a staging area, perching on cars while doing makeup, talking on the phone, drinking margaritas, etc. well yesterday i walked to my car which was in one of the front spaces and there were about 20 people scattered about. but none of them right behind my car. i get in immediately, turn the car on, glance to my left and right, and back up about 2 inches before i check my rearview where i am met with two seething, mouth-agape looks from a couple of women that apparently decided to lean on my car in the 10 seconds it took me to get in, start it up (are they deaf? were they waiting for a flashing light? some kind of ice cream truck music to announce my proximal motion?) and put my seat belt on.

they then saunter out of the way and i wait patiently for them to move and back out. naturally they feel the need to share their feelings. not usually one to back away from an argument, i roll my window down and say "excuse me?" and one of them says "you almost ran over my friend," to which i respond "i didn't almost run over your friend." "whatever. you could at least say you're sorry." so i smiled and said "i'm sorry" in an admittedly overly saccharin tone. which was met with "you're a fucking bitch." i countered in the only way i saw fit in this situation "no, you're a bitch." and i turned out of the parking lot.

juvenile? yes, i know. i admit it. but being yelled at in a parking lot in front of a boatload of people doesn't exactly inspire maturity in me. that said, i also know that trying to reason with this girl by saying anything along the lines of "umm you're the ones who went up to a car that had a person in it and was running and decided it would be a good place to rest your ass" (in a nicer way of course) wasn't going to get me anywhere.

i am completely jaded by driving in austin. the only two things that i really don't like about austin? 1) the sticky heat, and 2) driving. this is not a kind place to be in a car. people are assholes. everyone here feels so damn entitled. people crossing the street are entitled. people riding bikes are entitled. and people driving their cars are entitled. hell, even the buses are entitled (let me tell about the brand new $50 bench cushion that got ruined in '05 when a bus swerved across two lanes of traffic in front of me and i had to slam on my brakes sending a soda shooting forward and exploding all over my car). when people feel they are entitled, they don't play well with others. they don't let you into their lane, they cut you off, they deliberately drive through red lights because they're too important to wait like everyone else.

i spent a *lot* of time driving around in santa cruz last week when i was looking for apartments. all over the town, for hours a day. and this is what i found. people there are nice. no one was honking. there was no flipping of the bird. getting onto and off of the highway was easy. people slow down when you have your blinker on to get over, rather than speeding up to crowd you out. even when i ended up down by the boardwalk on a weekend day stuck for 20 minutes as pedestrian traffic completely overtook every nearby street, it was so benign. so patient.

the time of texans being move-, talk-, and live-life-like-molasses kind of people is gone. at least in austin. and that's a damn shame.

Labels: stupidstupidstupid cali

posted by amanda @ 3:27 PM